Lack of Boundaries
by MeridianGrimm
Summary: Suspicious of the meetings between Hakuba Saguru and the recently returned Kudo Shinichi, Kaito disguises himself as the Eastern Detective and gets utterly unexpected results.


Disclaimer: I don't own DC or MK.

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Kaito smoothed down his hair once more and rang the doorbell. He glanced at the button-up shirt and starched pants he'd worn as part of the disguise and wondered why anyone would want to wear restrictive clothes.

"Just a minute," he heard from inside the house. The locks on the door rattled and it was opened to reveal Hakuba Saguru, looking pleased. "Good to see you, Kudo. Come in." Letting out the tiniest sigh of relief that the disguise had been accepted, Kaito strode in and took off his shoes. It was about time he figured out what was going on with the friendship between Hakuba Saguru and the recently returned Kudo Shinichi. It seemed to have come out of nowhere. One day, Hakuba had declined an invitation from Aoko and Kaito because he had plans with another friend. It didn't take much prompting to get the name of this friend: Kudo Shinichi, the Detective of the East.

"Hasn't he been missing for years?" Kaito had asked when Hakuba revealed, to the magician's horror, that he was acquainted with Meitantei-san.

"Missing wouldn't exactly be the term I would use," his classmate had replied. "He's been… out of commission for a while. In hiding, you could say, moving around from country to country. I happened to stumble upon him during a few cases in Japan and deduced that there was something unusual about him. After he was convinced that I wasn't about to reveal his whereabouts to his enemies in the criminal sphere, we became quite closer. He's a Holmes aficionado as well."

Needless to say, Kaito was worried, which is why he was currently dressed as the Beikan and at Hakuba's house. His surveillance equipment had been tampered with about a month ago, and he hadn't gotten around to fixing things since he was friends with Hakuba and rarely used it these days. Come to think of it, though, a month ago was when Meitantei had come back into the public eye. Did Hakuba not want Kaito or Kid to know that the other detective was back? That suggested that they were planning something together, maybe traps of their own for a heist. Kaito did not like the look of those odds. Fortunately, he'd peered over Hakuba's shoulder as the detective got a text saying that Kudo would be over at seven tonight. After lifting Kudo's phone and preparing some harmless pranks that would keep him busy for a few hours, Kaito took his place.

"Your usual?" Hakuba asked as he strolled back into the kitchen. "You complained often enough about missing it when your guardian didn't allow it."

Praying that it wasn't some kind of seafood, Kaito answered, "Sure." He would definitely give himself away if he suddenly screamed like a six-year-old girl and clung to the ceiling. "Is there something I can help with?"

Hakuba got out ingredients and began combining them. "You can set the table if you want." Kaito, as Hakuba's best friend, had been over often enough to know where everything was, though he was surprised that Hakuba expected Kudo Shinichi to have the same familiarity with the household. "How are things with Mouri-san?"

Crap. "Ah, not much has changed."

"What about the Detective Boys?"

"They're doing well." That was a pretty safe assumption. He hadn't seen them since the last time they attended a heist. Their fearless leader, Tantei-kun, had left the country, apparently. Kaito slept much better knowing that the brilliant pest was far, far away bothering some other poor, innocent thief.

Hakuba poured the mixture in small circles on a pan, and Kaito figured out that he was making pancakes. Breakfast for dinner was always fun. He knew Hakuba made good eggs and bacon too. "Are they missing Edogawa?" the detective asked.

"Mmhmm."

"Would you be horribly offended if I said that I don't?"

Kaito froze, confusion undoubtedly written all over him. "Uh. What?" He agreed with the sentiment, but that was a lot more callous that he'd expected of Hakuba. The detective liked kids, Tantei-kun especially. Kid had seen the two at heists, and they got along well. Had Hakuba been faking it? That was wholly unlike the man Kaito had befriended over the past two years. An explanation would be welcome.

"I apologize. By that, I mean that I prefer the genuine person to the façade. I'm glad I got to see the truth." Hakuba smiled at him fondly, and Kaito was profoundly lost. There was something crucial about this conversation that he was missing, some tidbit of information that would make sense out of this decidedly unclear scene. So Hakuba liked the "real" Edogawa Conan over the face that the kid showed everyone? That made some sense. The adults thought that Mouri-tantei was the one solving all those cases, but Kaito had no doubt it was Tantei-kun. The nuisance used those big blue eyes to make himself look like just a cute child, bending those around him to his will. As a grand manipulator himself, Kaito could grudgingly appreciate Edogawa's mastery.

Kaito realized that he needed to answer. "Er. Me too. Truth is good." He turned back towards the table, fiddling with the placement of the silverware, so Hakuba couldn't analyze his expression. His poker face was intact, sure, but Kudo probably would have showed emotions on his face, and Kaito wasn't sure what would seem believable.

"I'm glad we agree." Suddenly there was an arm around Kaito's waist and he was being turned around and backed up against the table. One hand slipped to the small of his back while the other caressed his cheek. Wait, what was going –? Hakuba's lips covered his, pressing softly against Kaito's with tenderness. The gears in Kaito's mind halted, his thought processes going on strike. The detective's tongue pushed against his lips and Kaito, brain still fried, opened his mouth.

In the next moment Hakuba's hands and lips were ripped away, and the detective was halfway across the room, wiping his mouth with disgust. "For Christ's sake, Kuroba, get some bloody boundaries!" He made a sound like a cat hacking up a hairball. "Aren't you over here often enough as yourself? What in God's name possessed you to masquerade as Kudo?"

Kuroba was feeling pretty grossed out himself. He definitely could have lived without locking lips with his best friend. Yuck. "What the actual hell just happened, Hakuba? Are you and Kudo Shinichi…?"

"Together romantically? _Yes_, not that my love life is any of your business. Apparently we need to set some limits on the level of scrutiny you can have into my personal life."

"How do you even know him that well?" Kaito demanded, still shocked enough at the unwelcome kiss to reveal his true thoughts. "You said you met on some cases and that he was travelling the rest of the time. Has he been here all along? Does he know about me?"

"Is that what this is about? You're here as Kid?" Hakuba cast his eyes heavenward. "Someone please grant me the patience to deal with this lunatic." Then, looking back at Kuroba: "We are not currently planning anything nefarious for one of your heists. As of late, there hasn't been much discussion at all." He calmed down enough to blush lightly.

"I did _not_ need to know that second part." Kudo and Hakuba making out was not something Kaito was interested in dwelling on.

"Where is Kudo, if you're here?"

"Do you remember the pranks with the glitter glue?"

Hakuba's eyes widened. "You didn't. Oh, you _bastard._ We were going to the cinema tonight."

"Sorry," Kaito offered.

"No you're not." Hakuba suddenly started chuckling, the sound tinged slightly with hysteria. "We both phoned our respective police stations to make sure we wouldn't get called in and made preparations so we wouldn't run into any murders on our way, but we didn't plan for a Kid-themed disaster to interrupt our date."

"I really thought you two were plotting something, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered with all this." He shivered at the memory of Hakuba's tongue on his mouth.

"You can make it up to me by cleaning up the mess at Kudo's house while we're out." Hakuba sighed heavily, clearly tired of being frustrated with Kaito, and flipped the pancakes.

"The things I do for friendship. I'll try to be done by the time you two come back."

"Good. I'm going to assume that you can let yourself in, so I'll hold off introducing you to Kudo until another day." Hakuba looked pained at the prospect of introducing his detective to his thief.

"Oh, there's no rush," Kaito assured his friend, turning on the tap to pour a glass of water for himself. "Alright, you go rescue Kudo from his house. I'll finish up the pancakes and then head over to his place to clear away the glue. Are you happy with that plan?"

"Careful, Kuroba, you're starting to sound like a reasonable person." Hakuba grabbed his jacket from the back of one of the kitchen chairs and slipped it on. Then he paused for a long moment, and took it off again.

"What's wrong?" Kaito turned the tap off and gulped the water from his glass.

"I desperately need to wash out my mouth. Get out the bubblegum too, will you? We are _never_ discussing that –" he gestured vaguely at Kaito "– unfortunate mistake of identities again."

Kaito gurgled and spit in the sink. "No need to tell me twice."

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From Meri: In case it wasn't clear, in this story Hakuba figured out that Edogawa Conan was Kudo Shinichi, and their feelings eventually developed from platonic to romantic. Once Shinichi got back to his original size, they officially started dating. Obviously, Kaito hasn't realized yet that Meitantei-san=Tantei-kun. Have fun with that, Kaito. Also, I didn't put "SaguShin" at the end of the summary because I didn't want to spoil the surprise. Hope that's okay.

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